Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 160356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 802(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 535(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 802(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 535(@300wpm)
The mask in place. The ice queen throwing out standoffish vibes, making sure no one got close.
I look down at our joined hands. Dec dared to get close. Will he regret that? I desperately hope he doesn’t. “I’m done talking about me,” I say, letting go of his hand to claim my drink, finishing the last drop. Julio looks a little thrown when I look up at him. I haven’t tapped my glass. I was too busy spilling a part of my miserable story.
“She’ll have a water,” Dec says, pushing his empty to join mine. “We’ll both have water.”
I look at Dec in interest, not that he pays much attention to it.
“Water,” he reiterates.
Poor Julio doesn’t know what to do. “Looks like I’m having water,” I murmur, unable to stop myself reading into what Dec wants me to make of that. No more escape? I don’t need to drink now?
“And your marriage?” Dec says.
I fail spectacularly in my attempt not to go rigid. “This conversation feels a little one-sided.”
“Have you acknowledged the papers?”
“No,” I say shortly, silently willing him not to ruin the evening. “Have you found your wife?”
“No.”
“So we’re both still married.”
“True. The difference is, I don’t want to be.”
I withdraw, stung, and my eyes drop to my lap, the sudden urge to bolt overcoming me. Ouch. I try to fight it, I really do. But I’m wasting time. I’ll never win. “Excuse me,” I say, dropping from the stool and fleeing. But I didn’t grab my bag or coat in my haste, limiting where I can run to.
So the ladies’ it is.
I push both palms into the door and rush through, flinching when I hear the wood smack the wall behind it. Two more doors get the brunt of my urgency before I’m safely in the ladies’, braced over the sink, my loose hair veiling my face, my eyes on my shoes. Why? Why would he say that? Think it, but don’t fucking say it. Never say it. The butterflies are swiftly burned to a cinder by the inferno of anger raging in my belly.
Every brick he’s just carefully deconstructed from my wall—the bricks I allowed him to remove—is flying back into place. I breathe in through my nose, my fists balling, my chest expanding, as I try to cool down. Try to reason with myself.
Before I react and ruin this.
It’s not unreasonable for him to ask that question. To make that statement. He’s every right to draw his conclusions, to test the water by voicing them, but I still resent him for it.
How do I come back from this? How do I make it clear that any talk about that part of my life isn’t going to happen?
I don’t have time to figure that out. The door opens and Dec appears, stoic but so obviously bracing himself for a backlash. “I’m done talking about me,” I say with grit. “Don’t make me want to leave.”
“You don’t already?”
“No.” My answer is quick and very wobbly, not through doubt, but through emotion. “I don’t want to leave.”
“Then don’t,” he murmurs, but there’s one thing he doesn’t say, the same thing I’m thinking.
We can’t avoid it forever.
How long is forever? And am I thinking that far ahead in this moment?
My gaze drops from his to the floor, uncertainty back with a vengeance.
“Stop overthinking it, Camryn,” he warns with gentle scorn, his voice getting louder as he closes in on me. My spine clicks one vertebra at a time until it’s poker straight, my shoulder blades pinching. He puts himself behind me, eyes on mine in the mirror, and slowly sweeps my hair aside, exposing my neck. I’m rapt, tingling all over, as he lowers his mouth to the column of my throat, gently pressing his lips into my skin. My exhale is a quiet, quivering sound, as my blood throbs in my veins. The way he’s looking at me, not touching me anywhere with his hands, only his lips, watching my unstoppable reaction. I’m not overthinking anything now, because my brain has short-circuited.
And I’m done for when he drags his lips to the small, sensitive hollow beneath my lobe, his hot breath close to my ear, sending a wildfire of desire racing through me. I lean into his body, my head falling onto his shoulder, my eyes closing. The burning, wet sensation of his tongue licking up the shell of my ear is my undoing, and my moan’s lost in the back of my throat.
“Turn around,” he whispers, looping an arm around my waist and turning me. My hands land on his shoulders, and I wait with agonising anticipation for him to kiss me. “I’m sorry I pushed your boundaries.” His fingertip traces the fading nick on my cheek, his other palm cupping my arse, forcing me closer.
“It’s okay.”
He gently kisses the corner of my mouth. “Something tells me you’d say anything in this moment. It wasn’t okay.” Kissing the other side of my mouth, he withdraws. “I just want to get to know the woman I’m falling for before I take her to bed.”